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• Six gifts to Indiana University Cinema endow key programs

Six gifts to Indiana University Cinema endow key programs

• Feb. 28, 2017

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Indiana University Cinema has announced a suite of gifts that will all create endowments to establish and support annual programs as part of "For All: The Indiana University Bicentennial Campaign." Thanks to the university's bicentennial campaign gift-matching initiative, these recent donations create almost $1 million of revenue-generating endowments for IU Cinema programming.

"We are extremely grateful to our generous donors who have stepped forward to support these programs," IU Cinema Founding Director Jon Vickers said. "These gifts validate the programs that we have already established and demonstrate trust in our vision as we continue to develop new programs for our students, campus and community."

Recently endowed programs from the bicentennial campaign now include:

• Filmmaker to Filmmaker: Conversations from the Director’s Chair -- Endowed by Roberta and S. James Sherman. This new program will pair two complementary filmmakers on stage together, discussing their artistic vision and craft, accompanied by screenings of their films. Inaugural events will take place in April with Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman paired with another highly acclaimed documentary filmmaker. Details are soon to be released.
• Art and a Movie Film Series -- Endowed by Marsha R. Bradford and Harold A. Dumes. This is a collaborative program between the Eskenazi Museum of Art and IU Cinema, pairing lectures on objects in the museum collection with films screened in the cinema. Bradford and Dumes have been supporting this program each year and have decided to endow it to ensure its place on campus.
• CINEkids International Film Series -- Endowed by Brenda R. Weber and Gregory A. Waller. CINEkids is a children's film series that brings the best in American and international films for children and families to the IU Cinema. Admission for children 12 and younger is always free.
• General Programming -- Endowed by Laura Trout. The Grafton Trout Fund for IU Cinema supports current and new programs as developed to support the mission and vision of IU Cinema.
• International Arthouse Series -- Planned gift committed by Gregg A. Richardson. The International Arthouse Series is one of IU Cinema's most appreciated programs. The series brings new international, documentary, and independent films to campus and the Bloomington community. This endowment will allow this annual series to expand.

In addition to these recent gifts, IU Foundation Board member and former IU Trustee P.A. Mack Jr. endowed the Jon Vickers Film Scoring Award earlier in the IU Bicentennial Campaign. This fund supports a commission awarded to a Jacobs School of Music student to compose an orchestral score for a feature-length silent film each year. The new score receives its world premiere performed live with the film in IU Cinema with a student orchestra and maestro. These singular events provide unparalleled opportunities for the featured students and unique screening experiences for the audience.

"In its first six years, IU Cinema has established itself as a leading destination for quality, relevant, engaging and, very often, provocative films as well as some of the most acclaimed filmmakers from around our nation and the world," said IU Bloomington Provost and Executive Vice President Lauren Robel. "These extremely generous new gifts honor and strengthen IU's traditions in -- and commitment to -- the arts and humanities. They will also enable the cinema to continue to provide first-rate programming to audiences from all across IU and the surrounding community."

IU Cinema received its first endowment for programming before opening in 2011 from the Ove W Jorgensen Foundation, which established the Jorgensen Guest Filmmaker Lecture Series. This series has become a signature program for IU Cinema, helping bring renowned filmmakers to the Bloomington campus. Guests since 2011 have included Werner Herzog, Meryl Streep, Peter Weir, Glenn Close, John Waters, Abbas Kiarostami, Ava DuVernay, Claire Denis and Kevin Kline.

"Jane and Jay Jorgensen provided an incredible base with this filmmaker fund, as well as a benchmark for other donors, showing how transformative these endowments can be," Vickers said.

In addition to its endowed programs, IU Cinema also has a commitment for a planned gift to support student travel scholarships for cinema and media students whose films are accepted to film festivals. These scholarships will help students participate in festivals where their films are to be screened.

These gifts count toward the $2.5 billion campaign, "For All: The Indiana University Bicentennial Campaign."

"For All: The Indiana University Bicentennial Campaign" is taking place on all IU-administered campuses including IU Bloomington, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, IU East, IU Kokomo, IU Northwest, IU South Bend and IU Southeast. The campaign will conclude in December 2019 to coincide with IU's bicentennial year celebration in 2020. More information about the campaign, its impact and how to participate is available on its website.

Founded in 1936, the Indiana University Foundation maximizes private support for Indiana University by fostering lifelong relationships with key stakeholders and providing advancement leadership and fundraising services for campuses and units across the university. Today, the IU Foundation oversees one of the largest public university endowments in the country, with a market value in excess of $1.9 billion. In fiscal year 2016, IU received $360.9 million in support from the private sector. IU is consistently ranked among the top four of Big Ten universities in annual voluntary support.

The Indiana University Cinema is a world-class venue and curatorial program that is dedicated to the scholarly study and highest standards of exhibition of film in both its traditional and modern forms, advancing the university’s long-standing commitment to excellence, research and public engagement in the arts by providing educational, entertaining and enriching cinematic experiences. Since opening in 2011, it has screened over 1,500 films, hosted hundreds of filmmakers and is becoming a benchmark institution as a university cinema.